A Preliminary Research on Errors in the English Translation of《 The Analects of Confucious》 by James.docVIP

A Preliminary Research on Errors in the English Translation of《 The Analects of Confucious》 by JamesAbstract：《The Analects of Confucious》is hard to understand even to Chinese，the foreign translators with different culture are bound to produce diverse“fusion of horizons”. As a result, misunderstandings are seen in James Legges interpretations although his translation of The Analects in 1861 is regarded as the first authorized English version continuing until this day.The aim to analyze the errors in James Legge’s version is to show that “misunderstanding many sometimes prove to be extraordinarily valuable in research field in that misunderstanding reflects the translator’s misconceiving of another culture, the blockade in cultural exchange”. Keywords：the Analects of Confucious;misunderstandings;cultural background 中图分类号： G211文献标识码: A文章编号：1672-1578（2009)5-0008-02 1 Introduction It is obvious that Confucius’ influence is not confined to China. It also goes to the West, So there are many retranslations.Confucius’ thought in The Analects is profound but expressed in a rather concise and antique language which poses difficulty of understanding even for Chinese scholars. James Legge (1815-1897) is the forerunner who has systematically translated the Chinese classics works into English. His translation of The Analects in 1861 is regarded as the first authorized English version continuing until this day. His version includes his own commentary and copious citations from Chinese commentators, especially Zhu Xi. Though his translation is tediously long, it is still considered to be quite close to the original. However, The Sayings of Confucius, puts it,the Chinese text is often hard to understand and is sometimes open to more than one interpretation. Scholars still dispute over the meanings of certain words and chapters in The Analects. Similar to its commentaries of Chinese scholars, translation of this Confucius classic often reflects a personal involvement in